Playing with Data for Fun and Profit

Kevin Ohashi

Founder, Review Signal LLCFreelance Software Developer

Amateur Digital NomadBoard Member, Affinity Lab

Playing with Data for Fun and Profit

Who Am I?Background:● MSc in Entrepreneurship● MSc in International Marketing & Brand

Management● BA in Economics● Minor in Computer Science

My First Business - Domain Names

Which Domain Names are Valuable?

Source: ICANN.org

Hint: it’s .COM

What Makes Domain Names Valuable?

● Brandability● Industry/Market● Length (shortness)● Assocations/imagery● …● -------------------------->

TRAFFIC!

Domain Name Business Model

Traffic == Money1. Buy Domain

Names with Traffic2. Redirect them to

Advertising3. Collect Checks

Disclaimer: Might be evil. Many people hate these sites. I don’t blame them.

$$$$

Data back in my day...Yahoo! Overture● Showed every query’s

popularity● Updated monthly● Unlimited Querying● ==Data Mining Jackpot

What the data taught me...

Data showed a strong correlation between search volume and trafficFinding valuable domains was limited by:● Algorithms to generate names● Registering them faster than anyone else

Automation is a form of innovation

My Master’s Thesis - Predicting Box Office Sales with Twitter Data

Why did I do this?

Why Not?The goal of my research was to show electronic word of mouth (WoM) == normal word of mouth.The byproduct was electronic WoM can be recorded and analyzed. So I explored the data...

I Love Movies, So I Studied Them

“The highest adjusted R^2 (.96) for week 3 used: Positive Buzz, Theaters and P/N Ratio, to explain box office sales. “

tl;dr: The volume of positive messages, the number of theaters playing it, and the ratio of positive to negative messages explained 96% of box office sales.

Most Important Data Skill Learned:

Sentiment Analysis

Commercialization of Thesis

How Does Review Signal Work?

Core Business: Sentiment Analysis

● Automatically analyzed over 15 million opinions

● Created a source of reviews where none existed before

● Always Up to Date (or Up to Data)

Thank You!

Remember...● Data can be fun.● Data can be profitable.● Data can unlock new information/insights.● Data is only as good as the person analyzing it.

@KevinOhashi Personal Website: KevinOhashi.com

Business Website: ReviewSignal.com

[email protected]